Torain spearheads strong finish for Navy men's lacrosse

Navy's Greyson Torain scored a pair of late goals to lead the Mids over Boston on Saturday.

Navy's Greyson Torain scored a pair of late goals to lead the Mids over Boston on Saturday. (Paul W. Gillespie / Capital Gazette)

Staff report

Two goals in the final minute by All-American midfielder Greyson Torain broke a tie and led the Navy men’s lacrosse team to a 10-8 victory over host Boston University Saturday afternoon at Nickerson Field in both teams’ conference opener.

Both Navy (2-2, 1-0 Patriot League) and Boston (2-2, 0-1) were able to string together impressive scoring runs that featured scoring droughts of better than 20 minutes.

BU jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Mids before middie Ryan Wade found senior co-captain Jack Ray, who powered his way past the Terrier defense and put the Mids on the scoreboard at 2:14 in the first quarter. The goal sparked a 5-0 run by the Mids that featured a hat trick by Ray and goals by rookie attackman Christian Danieland Torain to give Navy a 5-3 advantage at halftime.

The Mids held BU scoreless for just over 19 minutes between the first and third quarters before a Ryan Hilburn triggered a 4-0 run by the Terriers to give BU a 7-5 lead deep into the third quarter. It was BU’s first lead since the opening quarter.

Navy, scoreless for more than 23 minutes between the second and third quarters, began to climb its way back into the game thanks to a fortuitous bounce that saw Casey Rees’ shot initially stopped by BU keeper Joe McSorley and then bounce into the stick of Ray who quick-sticked it into the goal with 1:08 left in the third stanza.

The Mids tied the game at seven all just over three minutes into the fourth quarter when Ray lost the ball in front of the crease and teammate Dave Little scooped up the ball and punched it in.

A minute later, the Terriers’ Hayden Ruiz found All-Patriot League attackman Jack Wilson for the goal as the lead changed for the third time in the contest.

Navy pulled even when Ray used a Torain pass to punch in his career-high tying fifth goal with 7:49 remaining in the game.

The final minutes were highlighted by a number of transition opportunities that were squelched by the spectacular play of both goalkeepers.

The Mids found themselves with the ball in their sticks with 1:19 remaining when the officials put the timer on and Sowell called a timeout to set up a final play. Coming out of the timeout Rees passed to Torain who took a handful of steps to his right before dodging his defender and getting his hands free for the go-ahead goal from 10 yards out with 59.1 seconds remaining.

Navy won the ensuing faceoff, but Boston was able to force a Navy turnover to gain possession. With six seconds left, McSorley’s pass clanked off the side of John MacLean’s stick and rolled out of bounds in front of the Navy bench, giving the ball right back to the Mids. Torain had the ball in his sick with 3.3 seconds to go in the game and simply lobbed it towards the empty goal where the ball would dribble to the back of the net to give the Mids a 10-8 victory.

Ray matched (Air Force, May 2, 2015) his career high with a team-best five goals, marking his eighth-career hat trick and first since the Mids’ NCAA Tournament victory over Yale on May 15, 2016. Torain finished with three goals and one assist and extended his games with a point streak to 11 in a row. Wade, meanwhile, pushed his point scoring streak to 14 consecutive games and 11 in a row with an assist.

Senior Joe Varello put up career-best faceoff numbers for a third straight game, winning 14 of the 22 draws while picking up a personal-best 10 ground balls.

The Navy defense buckled down in the second half and allowed BU just one goal over the final 19:43.

Wilson scored two goals and added an assist, while Hilburn scored a pair of goals to lead the way for the Terriers, while McSorley finished with 12 saves.

The Midshipmen return to action on Saturday when they travel to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to face Bucknell at Christy Mathewson Stadium beginning at 1 p.m.